376 research outputs found
An ethnographic study of the intercultural adaption process between Chinese students and their British lecturers and fellow students in the UK
No full textThis ethnographic study mms to extend Kim's (1988, 2001) model of cross-cultural adaptation and Jin's (1992; Jin and Cortazzi, 1993) Cultural Synergy model by providing qualitative data to demonstrate the two-way intercultural adaptation process between Chinese students and British lecturers/students in a MBA programme at 'Weston University' (a pseudonym) in the UK, in both classroom and group communication contexts. The total population of this study is 228 (190 students and 38 academic staff) in 2003-2004. A backgr~und introduction to traditional Chinese culture and academic culture is presented, since cultural distance and academic cultural distance are identified as two underlying factors that influence Chinese students' intercultural adaptation process. Intercultural adaptation is a process of self growth involving one's behavioural, cognitive and affective factors change over time (Kim, 1988,2001; Ward, 1996), and a process of one's cultural identity adaptation from mono cultural to intercultural (Kim, 2001). Meanwhile it is a process of one's intercultural sensitivity development, ranging from ethnocentric to ethnorelative (Bennett, 1986, 1993). This study aims to explore how both Chinese students and British lecturers/students meet each other's academic expectations and adapt to the intercultural academic identity (a mixture of Chinese and British cultures of learning) and how they cope with the dilemma of retaining their original academic identities (and co-national relationship) as well as developing new academic identities - intercultural academic identities (and inter-relationships), based on Berry et al. 's (1988, 1989) acculturation model and Jin's (1992, Jin and Cortazzi, 1993) cultural synergy model. This study accepts an interpretive-qualitative paradigm and adopts ethnography as its research strategy, with an emphasis on the process of participants' intercultural adaptation in the particular cultural contexts. A mixed method or triangulation is adopted as the main data collection method, which involves participant observation, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and documentary analysis. Grounded theory is the main analysis strategy for generating the new concept and theoretical model. Several analysis methods are employed: episode analysis, transcript analysis, artificial 'dialogue', comparative analysis, and key sentence quote. The research findings indicate that Chinese students and British lecturers/students underwent three-stage adaptation processes in both classroom and group communication contexts, from the initial unfamiliarity and frustration, relatively good relationship, via gradual adaptation but more frustration, less good relationship, to the final stage of gradual adaptation and relaxation (better communication and relationship between those adopting integration strategies, less good communication and relationship between those adopting separation strategies).</p
Entropy data for the 3D core-collapse supernova simulation of a 40 solar mass progenitor done by Fornax.
No full textEntropy data (unit: kb per baryon) for the 3D core-collapse supernova simulation of a 40 solar mass progenitor done by Fornax. The entropies are saved as Numpy arrays with shape (1024, 128, 256) corresponding to the (r, theta, phi) directions.
The grid information can be read from grid.h5. The file read.py shows a demo on how to read the grid.h5 file. The demo prints R, theta, and phi of the grid as 1D arrays. Use numpy.meshgrid(R, theta, phi, indexing="ij") to create the 3D meshgrid.
The "*.xmf" files provided make it simple to be read by the open-source visualization engine Paraview (https://www.paraview.org/). Open the ".xmf" files from Paraview, and the variables will be automatically imported.
In real simulations, they are written every millisecond. However, the data in this repository are saved every 10 milliseconds because otherwise it takes too long to upload. Contact the corresponding author to acquire other data
Individual Differences and Category Learning Performance and Strategy - A scoping review protocol
No full textThis registration is the protocol of a scoping review under the working titled "Individual Differences and Category Learning Performance and Strategy - A scoping review". This report is not an update of any previous review. Author Contacts: Tianshu Zhu (corresponding author): [email protected] John Paul Minda, PhD: [email protected] Western Interdisciplinary Research Building, 1151 Richmond Street, London, ON N6A 3K7, Room 5158. Both authors contributed to the search strategy and analytic plan of this review. Any deviations from the protocol will be documented and discussed in the supplementary material of the review. Important deviations will be discussed in the review itself. This review is supported by the University of Western Ontario, which provides subscriptions to academic database and to Covidence. This institution has played no role in developing this protocol. This registration was dveloped using the PRISMA-ScR checklist
Bank competition, risk taking and productive efficiency: Evidence from Nigeria’s banking reform experiments
No full textWe propose a three-stage procedure for investigating the interrelationships among bank competition, risk taking and efficiency. The procedure is applied to Nigeria’s banking reforms (1993-2008). Stage I measures bank productive efficiency, using Data Envelopment Analysis, and the evolution of bank competition, using Conjectural Variations (CV) methods. Stage II uses the CV estimates to test whether regulatory reforms influence bank competition. Stage III investigates the impact of the reforms and concomitant changes in competition on bank behaviour. The evidence suggests that deregulation and prudential re-regulation influence bank risk taking and bank productive efficiency directly (direct impact) and via their impact on competition (indirect impact). Further, it is found that as competition increases, excessive risk taking decreases and efficiency increases. Overall, the evidence affirms policies that foster bank competition, at least in the Nigerian context
Effect of manual acupuncture on bowel motility in normal kunming mouse
No full textAbstractObjectiveTo observe the effects of acupuncture on motility of jejunum and distal colon at different acupoints on normal Kunming mice.MethodsThe jejunal and colorectal motor activity of forty Kunming mice were recorded by the intra-intestinal capsule. The capsules contained with distilled water were placed into the cavities of jejunum and distal colon. The changes of bowel were compared with the background activity recorded before any stimulation. The chosen acupoints were as follows: Zusanli (ST 36) on the lower legs, Tianshu (ST 25) on the mid-lower abdomen.ResultsManual acupuncture (MA) at Zusanli (ST 36) significantly promoted the motility of jejunum and distal colon (manifested as increased change rate of average amplitude and increased change rate of mean area under the contractile curve) of normal Kunming mice (P < 0.01). MA at Tianshu (ST 25) significantly inhibited the motility of jejunum (manifested as decreased change rate of average amplitude, decreased change rate of mean area under the contractile curve, and the reduced frequency) of normal Kunming mice (P < 0.01), while significantly increased the distal colonic motility (manifested as increased amplitude and increased mean area under the contractile curve) of normal Kunming mice (P < 0.01).ConclusionMA at specific acupoints [Zusanli (ST 36), Tianshu (ST 25)] has different effects on the motility of jejunum and distal colon, which might involve the segmental innervations of the related nerve
Empress and concubines
No full textPersonally I have great passion for fashion and accessories. I always believe that jewelries add a lot of personality to one’s outfit, and can play up the attires easily. I am excited to take up this opportunity to design my own set of jewelry that reflects my belief and style. Meanwhile, I am always interested in Chinese History and stories. I believe it would be very interesting to combine my favorite things together to create a design product that adds fun to other people’s life. Hence I decided to design a set of jewelry that has Chinese culture influence and tells the audience an interesting story.
I started the project by researching and collecting a lot of information about Chinese culture. Then I selectively developed on some of the points and brainstormed on how to combine them cohesively. After which I came out with my own storyline as the background of my jewelry designs. I have also taken references from some famous fashion brands before sketching my own design. The actual design process was the repetition of sketching, refining, CAD, then refining again. Practical part came when I needed to 3D print my models out. I further refine the designs by making them more suitable for printing, and finally arrived at my products.
Through researching stage, I learned a lot more about Chinese culture and traditions, especially regarding Qing Dynasty. I even found out that many popular Chinese dramas have obviously misused their costumes. During designing stage, I learnt that jewelry designing is not only about being pretty looking, but also about ergonomics, cost, etc. Completing this project also allow me to explore more on CAD and 3D printing, on different materials and their characteristics.
The main unique feature of the jewelry set is the background storyline. Without which, the jewelry would only be a set of beautiful decorative accessories without content. The storyline brings all pieces together to form a comprehensive set. Each piece has its own meaning and altogether they reflects a culture, a hierarchy.Bachelor of Fine Art
Rasgos melódicos de la entonación del español hablado por chinos
No full text[spa] El interés por aprender español en China ha aumentado considerablemente en los últimos años gracias al aumento de los intercambios económicos, diplomáticos y culturales entre el país asiático y los países hispanohablantes. Sin embargo, aprender español para un sinohablante no es nada fácil. Se constata que los chinos, hablantes de una lengua tonal, presentan múltiples dificultades al expresarse en español, que es una lengua entonativa, lo que puede provocar malentendidos o una comunicación ineficaz con los nativos.
En la presente investigación, nos proponemos llevar a cabo un estudio sobre la entonación de estos aprendientes, de suma importancia para poder determinar los rasgos fónicos del perfil melódico que define su acento extranjero y los de los patrones entonativos que producen. Para tal finalidad, se ha establecido un corpus de 26,5 horas de grabación, emitidas por 31 informantes de China continental, hablantes de chino mandarín, con edades comprendidas entre 20 y 33 años. De las grabaciones, se han extraído 986 enunciados —302 interrogativos, 276 neutros, 199 suspendidos y 209 enfáticos. El análisis se ha llevado a cabo con el método Análisis Melódico del Habla (AMH), propuesto por Cantero (2002), el cual se ha considerado muy adecuado para este tipo de investigaciones sobre una interlengua (Selinker, 1972).
Los resultados nos han demostrado que los rasgos melódicos tanto de la entonación prelingüística, que definen el perfil melódico y el acento extranjero de esta interlengua, como los de la entonación lingüística, que describen los patrones melódicos utilizados por los sinohablantes, difieren mucho de los de la lengua meta. En cuanto a los rasgos del acento extranjero de esta interlengua, hemos observado en buena parte de los contornos ausencia de primer pico, cuerpos en zigzag o planos con un campo tonal más bien estrecho, pocas palabras con inflexiones tonales que presentan ascensos leves, e inflexiones finales con movimientos también leves. Y respecto al uso de patrones melódicos, es frecuente que los sinohablantes utilicen melodías que no se corresponden al tipo de enunciado apropiado en el contexto: usan patrones similares a los suspendidos o neutros para producir contornos interrogativos; patrones suspendidos o enfáticos, para emitir neutros; y patrones suspendidos o enfáticos inadecuados para producir enfáticos. Solo en el grupo de contornos suspendidos, la mayoría truncados debido a la dificultad de mantener una continuación en el discurso, predomina el uso de patrones y rasgos adecuados al contexto comunicativo.
Los resultados de este estudio pueden ser muy útiles para generar propuestas didácticas y desarrollar materiales de enseñanza con la finalidad que los sinohablantes aprendientes de español puedan mejorar sus capacidades comunicativas.[eng] The interest in learning Spanish in China has increased considerably in recent years thanks to the growth of economic, diplomatic, and cultural exchanges between the Asian country and Spanish-speaking countries. However, learning Spanish for a Chinese speaker is not easy. It has been noted that the Chinese, who speak a tonal language, have many difficulties expressing themselves in Spanish —an intonation language. These difficulties can lead to misunderstandings or ineffective communication with native speakers.
In the present research, we propose to carry out a study on intonation, which is of utmost importance to determine the phonic features of the melodic profile that defines their foreign accent and those of the intonational patterns they produce. For this purpose, a corpus of 26.5 hours of recordings has been established, uttered by 31 Mandarin speakers from mainland China, aged between 20 and 33 years. From the recordings, 986 utterances have been extracted and they have been divided into 302 interrogative utterances, 276 neutral utterances, 199 suspensive utterances, and 209 emphatic utterances. The analysis has been carried out with the Melodic Speech Analysis (MAS) method, proposed by Cantero (2002), which has been considered very suitable for this type of research of interlanguage (Selinker, 1972).
The results have shown us that the melodic features of prelinguistic intonation, which define the melodic profile and foreign accent of this interlanguage, and of linguistic intonation, which describe the melodic patterns used by Chinese speakers, differ greatly from those of the target language. As for the features of the foreign accent of this interlanguage, we have observed in a large part of the contours the absence of first peak, zigzag or flat bodies with a limited tonal filed, few words with tonal inflections that present slight ascents, and final inflections with slight melodic movements. Moreover, the use of melodic patterns among Chinese speakers frequently deviates from appropriate utterance types in the given context. They use patterns similar to suspensive or neutral ones to produce interrogative contours; suspensive or emphatic patterns, to produce neutral contours; and suspensive or emphatic patterns inadequate to produce emphatic contours. Only the group of suspensive contours, where most of them are truncated due to the difficulty of maintaining a continuation in the discourse, predominates the use of patterns and features appropriate to the communicative context.
The results of this study can be very potential for generating didactic proposals and developing teaching materials that can facilitate and enhance the communication abilities of Chinese students learning Spanish
How Does the Institutional Setting for Creditor Rights Affect Bank Lending and Risk-Taking?
No full textThis paper investigates how the institutional setting for protection of creditor rights affects bank lending and risk-taking. An analytical model is specified to underpin banks‟ portfolio decisions, between loans and other earning assets such as government securities. The model is augmented with various metrics, which proxy the institutional setting for creditor rights, and is estimated and tested on an unbalanced three-dimensional dataset of commercial banks in 20 African countries for 1995-2008. It is found that three specific metrics induce banks to allocate a high proportion of their earning assets to loans: legal creditor rights; the efficient enforcement of creditor rights; and availability of information sharing mechanisms among banks. However, the three metrics appear to work through different channels. The enforceability of legal rights works not only through mitigating credit risks, but also through a composite effect of market competition and lower costs of information acquisition and contract enforcement. The legal rights metric and information sharing metric exclusively rely on the composite effect
The possible of the impossible : the question of limit-experience in the work of Georges Bataille
No full textEn général, la pensée de Georges Bataille se présente comme une poursuite de l’impossible, et se résume en la notion d’expérience-limite. Il s’agit d’un mouvement de contestation qui ne s’arrête devant aucune vérité et cherche à aller au-delà des limites du possible. Mais puisque l’impossible ne saurait jamais être atteint, cette expérience devient, en ce sens, une interrogation sur le possible de l’impossible. En d’autres termes, elle devient un mouvement qui s’affirme en affirmant les limites de notre pensée et de notre être, et représente ainsi pour nous comme un nouveau mode de pensée et d’être. Le passage de l’impossible au possible de l’impossible, de la contestation à l’affirmation, voilà ce que nous essayons de montrer dans cette étude consacrée à la notion d’expérience-limite. Pour ce faire, nous tentons d’abord de reconstituer la généalogie de cette notion, afin de comprendre la tradition philosophique de la discontinuité dans laquelle elle s’inscrit. Il s’agit ensuite de la situer dans l’histoire de la philosophie occidentale, pour voir comment elle se distingue dans tous les aspects de l’expérience au sens conventionnel et constitue une expérience de la non-expérience. Puis, nous entendons l’examiner sur le plan du savoir et celui de l’existence, dans le but de préciser ses caractères révolutionnaires. Enfin nous voulons, en la considérant comme écriture, analyser son sens pour la littérature et l’art, domaines où se manifeste pleinement sa valeur.In general, Georges Bataille’s thought can be summed up as a pursuit of the impossible, and is represented in the notion of limit-experience. It is a movement of contestation that does not stop at any truth and seeks to go beyond the limits of the possible. But since the impossible can never be achieved, this experience becomes, in this sense, a rumination on the possible of the impossible. In other words, it becomes a movement that affirms itself by affirming the limits of our thought and our being, and thus represents for us a new way of thinking and being. This passage from the impossible to the possible of the impossible, from contestation to affirmation, is what we are trying to show in this study devoted to the notion of limit-experience. To do this, we first try to reconstruct the genealogy of this notion, in order to understand the philosophical tradition of discontinuity in which it is part. Next, we situate it in the history of Western philosophy, in order to see how it is distinguished in all aspects of experience in the conventional sense and constitutes an experience of non-experience. Then, we intend to examine it on the level of knowledge and that of existence, with the aim of specifying its revolutionary characteristics. We want finally, by considering it as writing, to analyze its meaning for literature and art, fields where its value is fully manifested
La entonación de las preguntas del español hablado por chinos
No full textAquest estudi té com a objectiu descriure els trets de l'entonació dels enunciats interrogatius absoluts de l'espanyol parlat per xinesos en parla espontània. Per a tal finalitat, s'ha establert un corpus de 82 enunciats emesos per cinc informants xinesos nadius que parlen espanyol. Després d'analitzar tots els enunciats amb el mètode Anàlisi Melòdica de la Parla (AMP), s'ha trobat que dins del corpus només hi ha 16 enunciats (19,5%) que segueixen els patrons /+ interrogatius/ de l'espanyol peninsular, mentre que la majoría, un 80,5%, es caracteritzen per presentar melodies pròpies d’enunciats suspesos i, en menys casos, declaratius i emfàtics. A més, els resultats mostren que hi ha diferències entre els parlants del nord i del Sud de Xina quan parlen espanyol, la qual cosa indica que cal fer un estudi més complet en el futur per comprovar si és un fenomen significatiu.This study aims to describe the intonation features of the absolute interrogative sentences of Spanish spoken by Chinese in spontaneous speech. The corpus includes 82 utterances obtained from five Chinese Spanish speakers. The research has been carried out following the Melodic Analysis of Speech (MAS) methodology. After the analysis of all the utterances, we found that only 16 utterances (19.5%) conformed to the /+interrogative/ sentence’s pattern of Spanish, while the majority, 80.5%, are characterized by presenting melodies typical of the suspense sentences and, to a lesser degree, declarative and emphatic ones. In addition, we also found that there was a significant difference between the Spanish spoken by people from the north and south in China who had attended the research, which need a further study to verify whether that is a common phenomenon.Este estudio tiene como objetivo describir los rasgos de la entonación de los enunciados interrogativos absolutos del español hablado por chinos en habla espontánea. Para tal finalidad, se ha establecido un corpus de 82 enunciados emitidos por cinco informantes chinos nativos que hablan español. Después de analizar todos los enunciados con el método Análisis Melódico del Habla (AMH), se ha encontrado que dentro del corpus, solo hay 16 enunciados (19,5%) que siguen los patrones /+interrogativos/ del español peninsular, mientras que la mayoría, un 80,5%, se caracterizan por presentar melodías propias de los enunciados suspensos y, en menor grado, declarativos y enfáticos. Además, los resultados muestran diferencias entre los hablantes del norte y del sur de China cuando hablan español, lo que requeriría un estudio más completo en el futuro para comprobar si es un fenómeno significativo
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